MILLY'S DIARY

Hello everyone

Yes, I know I am as bad as Jill in that I haven't blogged for a while, but sometimes I need her help with certain words and she has been rather busy lately, but, here I am, back at last.

I have been busy too - looking after kittens, well perhaps that is not quite what I do, but I do look at them.  We have four at the moment and Jill has named them: Sage, Basil, Angelica and Sorrel.  She calls them The Herb Gang.  Lillie, re-named Lola, went to her new home on Saturday and it was Jill's first 'on her own' homing event and I am sure it went well.

I had to go to our vet's on Monday because I have something wrong with my eye - the lady vet told me it was Keratitis, an inflammation of my eye which may happen again in the future.  I had to have an injection!  Not my favourite thing and eye-drops twice a day.  Apparently I am very well behaved when these are being put into my eyes - that's what they think, wait until tomorrow!

My pale Badger Boo had to go to the vet's yesterday for an operation.  Hope you are feeling much better today BB.

Now, what else have I been doing - well, lots of wildlife stuff and things like that which I best not write about.

That's me more or less up-to-date, so its off to the garden and Jill is off to the Chelsea Flower Show.

Have a good week everyone

Milly

IT AINT HALF HOT MUM

Hi everyone

Are we ever satisfied?  Too wet, too cold, too windy, too hot?  Fantastic weather and just great for lazing around in, but if you have to work it's not that much fun really, is it?  I am lucky as (lack of wind permitting) I can work outside, which I do very often.  However, at times the 'I have forgotten, this, this or this' becomes slightly annoying and the decision is 'go back inside and work' or 'stay outside and work on the garden'.  Very hard to talk myself into doing the right thing, because between gardening and crafting, what is the right thing?

I hope you read my Chelsea Flower Show post?  How about a caption for the last picture?  It was a fantastic day and I came home with great ideas of what I wanted to change and add into my garden.  I am a big fan of Heucheras and I was pleased to see my favourite supplier (Plantagogo) was there again and had won another, well deserved, gold medal.  I recently cleared a bed in the garden specifically for a 'Heuchera patch' and I placed an order when I got home for some gorgeous red-leaved and bronze-leaved plants.  I think I took about 50 photographs (crazy camera-wielding lady!) at Chelsea, but I promise I didn't add them all to my post, but here a few I missed out.

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of this beautiful rose but I do remember that the perfume was so lovely

Isn't this amazing?  Two driftwood stags locked in combat.  

Digitalis Illumination Pink was named Flower of the Year

This looked so lovely and cool on a very hot afternoon - a beautiful display and not a slug nibble to be seen

All over for another year and I can imagine that the exhibitors have had about five-minutes peace and quiet before they begin planning for next year's show.  

I hope you read my guest blog post on Friday from Lesley Beeton?  Lesley recently went back to South Africa for a holiday and her post gives a very interesting insight into the country, but of particular enjoyment are her photographs.  The Aloe is very impressive - particularly as in this country most of ours are just a little bit smaller than the one Lesley has photographed.  It's a great read and I really recommend you click on the above link.  Thank you Lesley - I hope you will be guest blogging again in the future.

Talking of guest blogging, if you are interested, do get in touch.  I am looking for guest bloggers for mid-June  onwards and as you know the topic does not have to be craft-related (although they are very welcome to us crafters).  How about writing about your garden, your holiday, a hobby, something that you enjoy and enjoy talking about and sharing with others?  Please get in touch on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I am looking for appx 600 - 800 words, plus lots of pictures and don't forget to add your links (Twitter, website, Facebook, etc) at the end of your text.

This week has been more social than work (boy, have I got to work very hard next week to catch up!).  I met up with Caroline (Caroleecrafts) on Monday morning for coffee and catch-up and we arranged to go (everything else permitting) to the Craft & Design Show at Secretts on Friday as Jane of Just Soaps of the Earth was taking part and she had very kindly sent me complimentary entrance tickets - thank you Jane.  I then went to lunch with a couple of other friends - discovered when I got to Clandon that the road I needed to go down was closed and the detour took me half-way around Surrey!  Well, it felt like it and as I have no sense of direction (Sat Navs were invented just for me), I had to follow the detour signs. I made it for lunch - just about.  Chelsea with my friend, June, was my mid-week socialising and time since then has disappeared without me achieving a lot.  Richard and I went to the Secretts event this morning; it wasn't very busy, but perhaps as it was near to 12 noon, most people were having lunch and leaving their visit until this afternoon.  Lots of different stalls: jewellery, cards, scarves, wood-turners and of course the best pongs were coming from the Just Soaps' stall.  Jane was elsewhere this weekend, but am guessing her husband was the one on duty down South.

Handmade this week has consisted of 'making' the garden and working through ideas for potential items to make for my business/website/events.  I am good at planning, noting ideas and identifying/researching what needs to be done, but getting my thoughts and plans into actions is not my strongest point.  This week's Handmade Monday was something I mentioned last week.  I began work on a willow wreath to which I am attaching fuchsia-pink hearts (I have sanded and glittered these and have used different sizes).  I also have some fuchsia-pink ribbon which I will make into a bow and at to the top of the wreath.  Once finished, I will post the final pic on my blog - I am hoping that I can expand using willow wreaths, but at the moment fixing the embellishments to the willow is proving tricky.  The hearts for this one have stuck, but not too sure if I feel confident that they will stay in place.  Any ideas for a glue to be used?

I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week spot and don't forget I am looking for guest bloggers for 15 June onwards please, so do get in touch if you would like to join in.

Enjoy your week everyone - the weather forecast is for rain and lower temperatures.  Hate to say this, but my garden really does need the rain as I have lots of dry spots.

Jill

THE PERFECT DAY

Hi everyone

The Chelsea Flower show was wonderful - too tired last night by the time I got back home to write my blog post, but better late than never.  We couldn't have asked for better weather considering how grim it has been up to this week. It was very hot, but not sunny so no heat beating down on our heads, although a little breeze would have been welcome.

We saw some fantastic gardens and displays, we saw some that were a little disappointing and some that we wondered how they had made it through the gates of Chelsea, let alone win a medal.  That may seem harsh, but as a gardener of many years, a regular visitor to Chelsea and someone who has picked up a few horticultural qualifications along the path of my life, I felt I could be a bit of a back-seat judge.

I tend to look at the outside garden displays and ask myself  'can I replicate the design in my garden?'.  Often, more often than not, the answer is no.  Apart from size, it might not fit the style of my garden, may have a planting scheme that didn't appeal to me.  However, I am pleased to say that the garden designed by Cleve West, which was the overall winner, was just perfect.  I could easily live with and maintain his design, it was really lovely and I have included a picture of his plot and know there are lots more on the Internet.  The garden designed by Joe Swift was also lovely - lots going on and a large garden needed to accommodate everything, but it was nice to know that a popular gardener had won a gold medal for his first   Chelsea exhibit.

The following are photographs I took during my visit to Chelsea, some of the outside gardens are shown and I have included lots of pics of the displays in the Marquee.  Sadly, we just ran out of time and didn't get to see all of them and didn't get to photograph all of those we did see.  Crowds were 5 or 6 deep around the perimeters of the gardens and most of my pics would have included just the backs of peoples heads!

Diarmuid Gavin's display - a you can see there are very few flowers and from a distance all you can see is lots of green leaf and scaffolding

The Gold Medal and Best in Show winner designed by Cleve West - this photograph really doesn't do the design justice

The garden designed by Joe Swift - the wooden pergola style structures looked lovely, so smooth

The Blue Water garden designed by Nigel Dunnett

One of the displays in the Marquee entitled Summer Holiday - I could almost hear the waves lapping on the sea shore

A mini that had been decorated with rock plants

A green racing car plus mechanics - this was great

The controversial easy-grass covered car - the display looked great, but is it really Chelsea?  

A beautiful Chinese garden - the colours are stunning and the display included a dragon (see the next photograph) and two flower-covered elephants

A Chinese dragon

I wish my Hostas looked this healthy - later in the season mine often resemble net curtains

A lovely display of Pitcher Plants

Sunshine in a pot - the Lilies on this stand were gorgeous and the perfume was soooo lovely

A dark purple and pale lilac Gladioli (quite unusual colours) - the lilac one did look a little like an Iris

And last but not least, one happy visitor going home with more than she had expected.

As always, I loved my time at Chelsea.  The friend I went with and I are both very keen gardeners and have done several horticultural courses together in the past.  We have been researching for another one to do, but there isn't much locally that doesn't cover ground (forgive the pun) that we have already been over.  We did find one at Chelsea, but just a little too expensive (£1,300).  So back to the drawing board.

I hope you enjoyed my review and the photographs - I have lots more and may add them to a separate page on my blog so that visitors can see some more shots of the beautiful displays at the event.

I will be back on Sunday with my Handmade Monday post, but please do come back tomorrow for my guest blog spot.  this week's post is really great and I know you will enjoy it.

Enjoy the sun

Jill

CHELSEA (THE FLOWER SHOW THAT IS) HERE I COME

Hi everyone

The best show of the gardening year has arrived.  I love Chelsea - even though it is always busy, you have to queue for certain things and the time you are there disappears far too quickly, it is a fantastic show.  I love to see what designers do for different sizes/shapes and styles of gardens, but I think the most beautiful section is the exhibits in the marquee.  The colours and fragrance are so gorgeous.  Last year we saw some gorgeous 'hats' designed by floristry students - stunning.  If you are going, I hope you have a great time.  My friend and I are going on Wednesday and so far the forecast is for a dry, sunny day - hope it stays that way.

My bags were 'on show' at a Plant Sale yesterday and I went along to meet up with my friend who was organising it and to buy one or two plants - well that was the plan.  I bought some dahlias, some heucheras (which I love), scented-leaved geraniums and some rock plants.  I also bought some marmalade for Richard and a raffle ticket - would you believe I won a prize of a pack of notelets.  My friend emailed me after the event to say my bags had sold well - not all of them, but I am always pleased with all sales and as they are a fairly new addition to my range, it's always nice to get positive feedback.

We went to the Harrow in Compton for a meal with a friend on Friday - it was her birthday so celebration time.  The Harrow has recently been refurbished/changed hands and is looking good.  The food was good, very large portions so next time just one course I think.  It probably wasn't helped by having a snack lunch with a friend on the same day!  I was very impressed: soup, bread and cake all home-made.  Made me feel very guilty as I can always find very good reasons for not making soups, bread, etc.

Despite having dealt with many of the problems that exist in my computer (and there are still a few) this week has still been odd in computer-land.  My midweek post disappeared completely!  It made it to the outside world, Twitter, etc on Wednesday and by Thursday it had fallen off of the planet.  Lesley mentioned on Twitter that my post appeared to have gone AWOL - thank you Lesley, as I probably wouldn't have noticed until I went to post the Friday Guest Blog post.  Then when I came to sort out the Friday post I discovered that the document had become corrupt - yet when I checked it upon first receiving it, all was OK.  It's a weird world in computer-land at times.

My makes for Handmade Monday this week are Father's Day cards.  I wanted to make several for placing on my wall at Bourne Mill, but had commissions for two as well, so they took precedence.  The customers do not read my blog, and have said it is OK to display them on my post as the recipients are not blog-followers either.  One is for a golf-mad dad and another one is for a rugby and football fan.  The third one is for Bourne Mill and I used some material left over from a previous birthday card commission, so double value.

I am in the middle of decorating a willow wreath with beautiful fuchsia-coloured hearts and ribbon.  I bought some wooden hearts from the art shop in Godalming (one of my favourite places) and discovered when I got home that the hints and tips were in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish - er, bit of a problem for me.  However, I emailed the company and they responded immediately (I was very impressed) and sent me the English translation.  I had hoped to have the wreath finished today, but as so often happens numerous other things got in the way.  My Handmade Monday post next week will include pics of the finished wreath but before then don't forget to visit the other blogs taking part in this week's 'event'.

I hope you enjoyed Eva's post on Friday about Cyprus?  We went to Cyprus many years ago and always said we would go back - nothing arranged as yet, but Eva's place looks and sounds very tempting.  If you would like to be a guest blogger on here, please do get in touch: christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.  I am looking for a blogger to take part on 8 June - so any takers?  Just a reminder, about 600 - 800 words is fine, please include pics as well and don't forget to finish the article with your links to your website, blog, Twitter, etc.  Once posted, it also hits Twitter and Facebook, so plenty of exposure.  I also tweet about the post 2 or 3 times during the day/the following day of the post and it's nice if the person who is the guest blogger does the same.  It's a great way of showing our work to new people and also getting new followers on our blogs.

Back to card-making now as I want to get some Father's Day cards finished too.  Out to lunch in Clandon tomorrow with a couple of friends - we have been trying to arrange a get-together for about 6 weeks and something keeps happening to force us to move the date.  So far, nothing affecting tomorrow's date has occurred.   I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week post which will be about my trip to Chelsea - really looking forward to it and hope to buy some more heucheras as well as do some celebrity-gardener spotting.

I hope you have a good week.

Jill